The Clock Worker
by Elly-275
Summary: Now a Guardian, Karen tries to piece back together her life after being revived by Ghost.
1. Chapter One: Ghost

DESTINY  
The Clock Worker

"A Child asked me if I was a clock…I told her yes, I was keeping time until the world would be safe for her."

Chapter One: Ghost

Cold was what Ghost was getting from this ship, a long since drifting derelict heading towards Mercury, an unknown destination long since forgotten since days of old. Ghost floated around the drifting ship, his journey had taken him here for reasons unknown, just that his destiny awaited him here…

Ghost sat in a small room for a while, scanning the dead that were lying about, air was minimal on board the derelict and was a miracle that the air filtration unit was still operational after so many years.

A noise caught Ghosts attention and he dimmed his eye slightly before hiding behind some crates, and soon enough, a Fallen soldier moved down the corridor, they had come aboard the ship a while ago before he had made it there, so he was playing a dangerous game finding what he was looking for.

Once the Fallen had moved on, Ghost continued his search, sifting through the dead before finally coming upon one he found interesting.

Lying on the floor was what appeared to be a scientist of some kind, tattered cloth still clinging against the bones, signifying that this person might have been one at some point, Ghost would never know as his shell opened up and his central eye shown a brilliant light down on the corpse.

A Ghost's purpose was to find a Guardian to help fight against the growing darkness, the very thing walking aboard this old derelict ship, and this one had found what it was looking for as it used its functions to reconstruct the dead into a living being again, a Guardian.

After some work, the body was reconstructed again and there lied a women, pale pink skin with light brown hair flowing down to her shoulders, Ghost looked at his "creation" in awe, he had finally found his destiny, which would now be hers to bear.

Soon the person awoke with a sudden start, gasping as if the air in the room had escaped before looking around, taking in shallow breaths before breathing normally.

This Guardian interested Ghost as he reconstructed himself back together, looking at her with his central blue eye, "Hello Guardian!" He said almost cheerfully, in honesty, he was excited for this, The Traveler had given him a purpose and his long journey payed off.

"W…were am I?" the women asked, looking down at herself at the ripped cloth that barely covered her body.

"That I do not know, but this ship you are currently aboard has been drifting for quite some time."

"Drifting?" She asked, looking up at Ghost now.

Ghosts' body began to rotate as he processed this, "Yes, I don't have an exact date of how long though." He said softly before looking at the doorway and then back at the women, "Quickly Guardian, I have no time to explain, but you must follow me!" He exclaimed.

The women got up and looked around before following, listening to the cries of monsters down the hall.

What bothered her more however was that she couldn't remember who she was exactly save for her name, Karen walked behind this strange floating object, seemingly trusting the object as if it was a friend she's known for a long time…or she just chose to trust this object instead of finding out what was making all those noises.

Ghost stopped down the hallway and looked down the T Corridor before moving left, "This way!" He said, Karen heard the noise getting closer, clicking sounds as something was running at them.

The two of them picked up their pace as they ran down the hallway, passing by many rooms as Karen was focused on what was in front of her, soon however, she ran into something with a loud grunt before falling against the deck.

Looking up, she looked straight at a thing creature with two arms and what appeared to be a space suit like clothing on it and a mask over its head, two piercing white eyes looking down at her as it reeled back from being run into.

Beside Karen was a pistol that the creature had dropped, the thing itself saw this and pulled out a knife and lunged at her before she picked up the gun and fired.

Karen hadn't realized she had closed her eyes when she fired, but when she opened them, she saw the creature slump to its knees, smoking holes in its chest and head flowed from its wounds before it fell to the deck in between Karen's legs.

She was shaking now, dropping the pistol before getting up, clinging against the wall as she avoided the thing, thinking it would somehow get back up.

"Guardian, are you alright?!" Ghost spoke, looking down at her and scanning her for injuries, to his surprise, there was none save for mental stress.

Karen nodded and moved past the creature, "L…let's just go…" She said before continuing on down the hallway to an unknown destination.

Soon, they made it to a small hanger on the ship, parts strewn about everywhere as Ghost moved forward, scanning the area, a ship sat at the center of the hanger, silent and undamaged through the years, save for some paneling that had been taken off, but those were an easy fix.

Karen looked at it with a relieved smile, Ghost looked through the ship, plunging into an opening it found before coming out a few minutes later, "Good news, this Jumpship is still functional!" It exclaimed, its back end rotating, "Shall we get out of here?" It asked.

Karen nodded and opened up the cockpit before climbing inside, somehow she also remembered how to operate a ship like this.

Ghost began to move inside before a shot rang out and struck the machine in the side, causing a quick "yelping" sound to come out of it as it suddenly dropped into the cockpit with Karen, in a panic, she closed the cockpit and started up the engines as Fallen started to almost flood into the room, more of those strange creatures pouring in like a broken faucet.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Karen swore, the engines sputtered slightly before finally coming to life, the jumpship soon lifted up off the deck and Ghost, with his damaged shell, did his best to open up the hanger as Karen flew the ship out, striking the doors slightly as they escaped the ship.

Karen woke up from her sleep, deciding that she needed a nap as the ship drifted to an unknown destination, Ghost was in her lap, still functioning but no longer speaking, a few sparks flying from it.

"Thank you little guy…" She said with a frown, looking at the thing, this very object saved her life, or more like GAVE her life somehow, and she was strangely grateful for it.

Looking out into space, out into the empty expanse, soothed her, no sign of strange creatures coming at her…it was tranquil.

Ghost sputtered a bit as his eye moved around the cockpit, looking for something before lifting up slightly and looking outside with her.

Ghost tried to say something to Karen, but was unable to, much to his dismay, but he motioned towards an unknown destination that she looked at before directing the ship that way.

Not knowing where she was going, she continued forward in space, almost lost, but thankful to be out of danger…

Soon…Karen drifted off back to sleep, letting darkness take her into a deep sleep for now, Ghost drifted down back into her lap and decided to power down for now.


	2. Chapter Two: Venus

Chapter Two: Venus

Alarms sounded within the jumpship, waking Karen from her deep sleep as she leaned in and grabbed hold of the controls, a planet was in view now and Ghost's body opened up to display data, Venus.

Karen read the data Ghost had given to her as she realized that the jumpship was almost out of fuel, so she decided to land down on the planet and hopefully find fuel.

The Jumpship shook as it entered the atmosphere of Venus before the clouds parted to reveal a broken down city below.

Karen looked at it and frowned, "Not a good sign…" She muttered, studying the surface slightly before landing in a clearing beside some broken down buildings that once used to be an office of some kind.

Stepping out of the ship, she landed on a field of grass, nature was taking back the building as she looked up at it, curious on what it used to be.

Ghost flew beside her, he was damaged, that was for sure and Karen though his voice box or something had been damaged in the process as well.

Stepping inside the building carefully, she looked around at the inside, desks and computers were strewn about everywhere on the floor, either smashed or intact, but this used to be someone's work place, a place to earn money to support a family…now just an empty husk of what it used to be.

Ghost followed behind Karen, looking around as well and wondered if Karen would remember anything of her past life…most Guardians didn't when they "woke back up"  
But Ghost just kept moving along with his companion, despite not being able to speak for the time being.

Karen walked through the halls of the building, checking each room for something useful she could use for her ship, or just in general, be used for protection.  
She couldn't find either one as she walked through the other end of the building into a clearing where a statue stood of an angel, reaching up into the sky, looking up, she saw a mountain in the distance erupting, Maat Mons, or at least she thought she remembered the name.

She just decided to sit against a boulder, or concrete that fell from the building and just sighed.  
Karen had no idea where to go or if there was any fuel on this god forsaken rock, but she needed to find something here.

Ghost sat beside her and just looked around, Karen couldn't help but rub Ghost softly like a cat, a long ago instinct she still remembered, catching herself though, she pulled her hand away as Ghost looked at her.

"I'm sorry about that…old habit." She said softly

Ghost didn't mind it though as she stood up and sighed again, "Let's look deeper, maybe we'll find something in another building." She said, smiling softly before continuing forward.

Meanwhile in the shadows, something watched as Karen moved through the city, unwavering in its silent pursuit, it could smell the light upon her, and it desperately wanted what she had.


	3. Chapter Three: Shattered Coast

Chapter Three: Shattered Coast

It had felt like hours as Karen continued looking around the broken city, or what was left of it, the coast was a broken mess. Buildings hanging by a strand in certain places and none that could help her get off Venus any faster.

Her stomach rumbled softly and she laid a hand on it, frowning softly as she sighed, and no food in sight either.

"Damnit…" She swore softly, her adventure hadn't yielded any results since landing and she doubted she would find anything, but she kept at it, not giving up quite yet.

Soon she came upon a large U shaped structure along the edge of the coast, large angelic statue sitting at the entrance like a guardian that reached towards the heavens, as if to ask for the stars for assistance, something Karen wished she had.

Looking at the entrance, she wasn't sure if she should continue, but something inside her urged her further, so she walked inside to find a hole had been blasted open to the lower basement.

Stepping down into the hole, she found herself standing in almost ice cold waters, sending shivers up her bare skinned leg since most of her suit was ripped, something she wished she could fix.

But she continued forward, ignoring the cold as best she could as she sloshed on through.

Eventually, she made it to another hole in the ground that led upwards, the room it led into was a quiet looking library, another statue at its center, a motif for this building or planet in general, but it provided a small amount of comfort.

Looking around the place, Nature was beginning to take back the building itself. Most of the books were worn down from water dripping down from the cracks above, but Karen found a few books worth salvaging and Ghost understood full well what she wanted, digitalizing the books for safe storage.

Karen however, started to grow cold, her ignoring of the water didn't stop her body temperature from lowering, shivering as she decided to collect a few books and set up camp in the room.

Laying the books in a pile, Ghost sent out a spark from his central eye to light them, providing Karen with warmth, only wishing she could find food somewhere, let alone fuel.

The weight of what had all happened finally caught up to Karen however as tears welled up in her eyes, soon she began to sob and curled up, knee's against her chin as she just watched the flames flicker and dance, she wished desperately to remember who she was before all this, but nothing came to her.

Ghost wasn't sure what to do to comfort Karen, he could only simulate emotions, not experience or feel them, something he wished he could do sometimes to be of more use to these humans.

After Karen's breakdown, a feint noise caught her attention, causing her to carefully move to the edge of the statue she set up at and look towards the back entrance, something was coming and it sounded metallic, steel clacking against stone as it drew ever closer.

The noise revealed itself, a large metallic creature stood in the doorway, its actions precise and calculation as it moved with robotic precision, another one of its kind showed up behind it. The things had large fanned heads with a central eye and a beak like face.

Tall and slender with bronze bodies, these machines were looking for something in the room, patrolling as they slowly walked around, Karen had long since kicked out the flames as best she could, a few crackling embers remained.

Ghost knew full well what these were from other Guardians, Vex, powerful enigmatic machines hell bent on total control, with a lapse of judgement, Ghost forgot to inform Karen of the problems she might have to face on Venus, Vex being one such threat.

Karen meanwhile held her hands over her mouth as she watched the Vex move down the steps slowly, looking left and right, emotionless, and she doubted they'd be very helpful.

They drew closer to her position with every step, she had nowhere to go either, trapped behind the statue as these things were almost upon her, all Karen could do was close her eyes and pray that they passed her by.

But without any luck, they came to her position, stepping in front of her, making odd screeching noises as they looked down upon her, weapons charging up, ready to fire when a blast rang out in the room, Karen opened her eyes after awhile when death hadn't come to find one of the machines upper body was missing completely.

The other Vex soldier turned towards the intruder and opened fire, the unknown shooter moved quickly and fired back, Karen just tried her best to not get hit as stone was blasted to bits with every shot, raining down on her.

Soon the shooter took out the last Vex soldier and sighed with relief, Karen opening her eyes again to see another Ghost appearing in this persons hand like a lamp.

"Yep, looks like another Guardian was down here after all…not that Cayde told me that anyone was out this far…" The person said, revealing to be a female by voice, although Karen still wasn't sure with all the strange things that have been going on lately. This women had a long trench coat, white in color all over with a helmet that reminded Karen of Eagles.

This woman removed her helmet and whipped sweat from her brow before looking at Karen with glowing blue eyes, she had also seen that her skin was of a light-ish blue color as well as having purple hair.

"Are you alright Guardian?" The women asked, holding out her hand to assist Karen up.

Karen nodded and looked down at the broken machines before her, smoke billowing from their bodies before she looked back at this strange woman.

"Thank you for saving my life…" Karen finally said, letting out a soft sigh of relief.

The women nodded with a lopsided grin, "The name's Ariel by the way."

Karen smiled and held out her hand to shake, Ariel took it and shook it, "I'm Karen." She said before a sound outside caught Ariel's attention, placing a finger against her ear as someone else talked to her.

Ariel's face turned grim as she slid her helmet back on, "We need to get out of here, things got a little troublesome outside…" She said

Karen wasn't sure what was going on, but she followed Ariel through a set of corridors before leading outside a courtyard, in its center was a strange ship that had crashed and was being taken by nature.

On top of the crashed vessel were two other Guardians firing down below at an unknown enemy pooling out of several buildings, Karen and Ariel meeting up with these new strangers.

"Can you fire a gun?" Ariel said, holding out a pistol to Karen, she took it and nodded slowly, not admitting that she had only fired a weapon once.

Soon the whole group was firing down at more of those strange machines that almost attacked Karen earlier, a whole army was filing out two at a time.

"Evac is almost here boss." One of the Guardians said to Ariel, one of them pulled out a rocket launcher of some kind and fired down upon the group below, taking out a huge group of them.

"God Damnit…the Vex here are getting worse!" Ariel cursed, firing at a few as well as Karen firing a few shaky shots at the Vex, soon however she could hear a feint hum as a dropship flew over the courtyard, circling it before going down low, opening up to reveal other soldiers to assist.

Karen and the others soon filed into the dropship and lifted off, giving Karen the time to sit down upon the deck and sighing with relief, free from that hell down below.

"Let Cayde know that we're heading back to the Tower…we have new company." Ariel spoke to the pilot.

Karen wasn't sure what she had gotten herself into.


End file.
